Quick thinking and years of training have helped him escape quicksand in Utah's Moab Desert, survive a blizzard in the French Alps and scare off a man-eating tiger shark in the South Pacific.

Despite some nail-biting moments, Bear says he keeps coming back for more because adventure is ingrained in him.

"It's the one thing in my life I've always been good at," he says. "It's where I feel I come alive and I thrive."

Bear lives by the motto "Do whatever you need to do to stay alive." To stave off hunger and thirst during his travels, Bear will even sink his teeth into a half-eaten zebra carcass, termites and raw eggs, straight from the nest. In one memorable Man vs. Wild episode, Bear even drank his own urine to quench his thirst. "I have spent a lot of this series eating terrible, terrible things," he says. "But so much of survival is about doing what you need to do. I think, certainly foodwise, I often leave my prejudices behind."